Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil
This study has aimed at exploring the narratives of perpetrators of child sexual
abuse within a social constructionist research approach.
Tape-recorded conversations were held with twelve participants who were
engaged in a treatment programme at Childline Johannesburg and Childline
KwaZulu Natal. The conversations with these men served to punctuate the
participants' own experiences both in childhood and throughout the course of
their adolescent and adult lives in order to elicit meaning and understanding of
their offending behaviour. These narratives were compared to the traditional
empirical research literature.
The narratives highlighted some similarities to the traditional research literature;
however, various differences were also noted. The similarities pertain particularly
to:
their experiences of having had traumatic and disruptive
childhoods;
an apparent lack of empathy for the victim;
the employment of a wide range of rationalisations in order to
explain their offences;
a lack of self-esteem;
a dearth of sex education in their home environment.
Differences between narratives and the traditional research literature
encompassed:
the role of alcohol as a causal factor in offending;
the belief in the abused-abuser hypothesis;
the notion that most offenders begin their aberrant pattern of
offending in adolescence;
an absence of the popular stereotype that paedophiles are sexually
and/or physically attracted to children.
The participants in this study indicated an emotional attraction to their
victims.